A different type of family tree: Applying family history concepts to animation
"Modern Cartoon Family Tree 2.0" by AlexB9598w
This family tree is unlike any other tree I've seen before. I thought I'd do a fun one this week. It's not focused on a specific character or on the draw of family, the latter which I wrote about before. Instead, this shows the connection between people and their different shows. It all starts out with Donovan Cook and moves down from there. I think this tree is interesting in that it shows the connection between these shows. However it is also, you could say, limiting. I say that because it doesn't exactly focus on the interconnection between people. I know that, for instance, that Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey are married, but this chart only shows them as writers. Similarly, I know about the controversy which enveloped Twelve Forever, leading to the end of the show, and Shadi Petosky, a trans woman, becoming the executive producer of the show and having her own project on the way. Since I don't know most of these shows, I'm narrowing it down to the shows I do know and working back from there. Let's start with one of my favorite shows, Cleopatra in Space, and focusing on the executive producer of that show, Doug Langdale.
Reprinted from my Genealogy in Popular Culture WordPress blog. Originally published on August 28, 2020.
I then expanded this by looking at the companies behind each one of these productions, and it starts to look more like a bit of a tree, showing the parent companies and production companies. Keep in mind that Sony Pictures Television, as of 2002, owns both Columbia divisions, so the chart would look a little different now. Additionally, DreamWorks is now owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBC Universal, which is, itself, owned by Comcast. So, the chart would look different today.
Now, I wanted to expand this a little more, so I originally wanted to look at all those who have been listed as being on the Cleopatra in Space crew (herein called Cleo Crew), apart from Doug Langdale. Since that was 40 people, I narrowed it down to storyboarders, which consisted of 18 people in total: Aaron Brewer, Abigail Davies, Adam Temple, Andrew Marshel, Bob Suarez, Chris Ybarra, Derek Thompson, Eugene Huang, Gary Ye, Ingrid Kan, Kevin Slawinski, Laurianne Uy, Samantha Suyi Lee, Scooter Tidwell, Thalia Tomlinson, Topher Parnell, and Wei Li. From there, I broke it down by the overlapping shows that they had worked on. [1] I ended up narrowing it down mainly to DreamWorks shows, as you'll see in the chart below:
We learn a lot from this. For one, Chris Ybarra and Bob Suarez had worked together and/or on two of the same shows: Big Mouth and Turbo Fast. Additionally, Adam Temple and Wei Li had both worked on Carmen Sandiego, while Abigail "Abby" Davies and Laur Uy had worked on Spirit Riding Free. We also find that Bob Suarez and Laur Uy worked on the same show too. Even more fascinating is the fact that ALL of these productions were on Netflix and most, apart from Carmen Sandiego, were tied to DreamWorks. We can conclude that many of the storyboarders probably knew each other and/or had worked with one another in the past. If we combine this with the information about Doug Langdale I showed earlier, it would mean that Langdale worked on the same team as Bob Suarez and Laur Uy on The Adventures of Puss and Boots. These connections were likely part of the reason they were hired in the first place.
In sum, this is a unique family tree of sorts, which shows connections between those in the animation industry. You can see who the "parents" (like DreamWorks and Houghton Mifflin) are and who the "children" (like Bob Suarez and Laur Uy) are as well. This sort of analysis is much better than the "modern cartoon family tree" shown at the beginning of that post. That post almost treats the connections between individuals as static. I may do another one about LGBTQ animations or something else. We'll see what happens! As always, comments are welcome, as I'm deeply unsure about what I'll write about next.
© 2020-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] I also found that Aaron Brewer and Eugene Huang storyboarded Little Big Awesome, which was produced by Amazon Studios and Titmouse, Inc., and that Aaron Brewer and Bob Suarez storyboarded Niko and the Sword of Light, produced by the same groups. Additionally, Frank Squillace directed Jackie Chan Adventures, while Scooter Tidwell was a storyboarder. At the same time, Bob Suarez, Frank Squillace, and Scooter Tidwell storyboarded The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Furthermore, Abigail Davies worked on Cartoon Network's Ben 10, with Scooter Tidwell as a sequence director. Finally, Frank Squillace directed Transformers: Rescue Bots while Thalia Tomlinson worked as an animator for the same show.
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Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, Meta and more media companies have confirmed they will cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Disney reached out to employees on Friday to stress that they recognize the “impact” of the Supreme Court’s decision and “remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care” for all Disney employees and their families, which includes family planning and reproductive care, “no matter where they live,” an internal source told Variety. For Disney employees unable to access a medical service, including abortions, in one location, they have a travel benefit that allows for “affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location.”
A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S. employees and their dependents who need to travel for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion — through our U.S. health plans. This is a $10,000 lifetime allowance per employee and/or their dependents per service.”
In light of the Supreme Court decision, Warner Bros. Discovery has expanded its “healthcare benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care,” a spokesperson said. The company’s chief people and culture officer, Adria Alpert Romm, said in a memo: “Our number one priority is the wellbeing, health and safety of our employees.”
Variety has confirmed that Comcast has a travel benefit that covers Comcast and NBC Universal employees’ medical services and procedures that aren’t available near an employee’s home.
Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and Chief People Officer Nancy Phillips sent a memo to staff on Friday, obtained by Variety, confirming the company’s intentions to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions, writing, “Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.”
A Meta spokesperson said: “We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”
Sony employees in the U.S. receive reimbursement for travel if it’s required to access healthcare services available under its health plan, which includes reproductive healthcare, a source has confirmed. "Sony Music Group and Live Nation are known to have insurance policies that provide reimbursement for travel if it is required to access healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare services."
The Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute, which are based in Utah, announced several weeks ago that they augmented its healthcare benefits to include covering travel expenses for services not available where they reside. Utah is one of the states expected to implement abortion bans following the Court decision.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti told staffers: “Effective immediately, we will provide a stipend for anyone residing in the 13 states with triggering abortion ending laws to cover the cost for travel and expenses required for access to safe abortion. The process around this will be completely confidential.”
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said in a note to his staff on Friday that the company has “made enhancements to our U.S. health benefits to assist covered employees and their covered dependents in obtaining access to reproductive care regardless of where they reside. Employees who need abortion, infertility or gender-affirming services who cannot obtain that care locally are now eligible for reimbursement on travel and lodging.”
Earlier Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively ending federal protections of abortion rights. The final opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, fully repudiates the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights. It also effectively strikes down the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that largely maintained the right established in Roe.
Variety has reached out to additional Hollywood studios and media companies, but has not yet heard back. Some companies who did respond to a request for comment, such as Amazon and Lionsgate, said they did not have a statement at this time.
Here’s the Paramount Global memo in full:
Team,
We know that many of us have been closely following the news regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, which struck down Roe v. Wade and repealed constitutional protections for abortion. Across the country, we have entered a moment of profound uncertainty – from a legal and a policy perspective, as states pursue different paths regarding reproductive rights, but also on a personal level, as we try to understand what services will be accessible, when, where, and to whom.
In the face of this uncertainty, we want to be very clear about what will not change at Paramount.
First, as a community: wherever we stand on this or any other difficult issue, we will continue to treat one another with empathy and respect.
And second, as a company: Paramount will support – as we always have – the choices our employees make about their own health care. This includes the reproductive health and family-building benefits* that help make our company a welcoming place to work. A few benefits I’d like to highlight include:
Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.
Fertility and family building support through Progyny including coverage for IVF, egg freezing and other fertility treatments and services and reimbursement of up to $30,000 for adoption or surrogacy expenses.
Free access to Health Advocate, a confidential service to help you and your family find medical providers, resolve health insurance issues and navigate the healthcare system.
Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave for a delivering parent (includes 6 weeks of Short Term Disability), up to 12 weeks of paid leave for adoption care or foster care and up to 10 days of paid bereavement leave including pregnancy loss.
24/7 lactation support, including milk shipping for traveling employees, through LifeCare.
Free access to a dedicated behavior expert for support raising children with developmental disabilities or learning, social or behavioral challenges.
We encourage you to visit the Paramount Total Rewards portal for additional details, including parenting information on the Family Planning Resources page. If you have questions about your benefit eligibility, please email the Paramount HR Employee Support Team at
[email protected].
We also understand that some reproductive health care events and decisions can be particularly challenging, so we want to remind everyone of our professional counseling and other mental health services, available 24/7, through our CCA Employee Assistance Program (Company Code: paramount).
All these resources are here for you and your loved ones. We encourage you to explore your options and take advantage of what’s available in order to make the medical decisions that best suit your needs. As ever, we are here to support all members of our community––and will give you and others the space to process this news.
Best,
Bob & Nancy
*Please note that you must be in an eligible employee classification for each of the benefits noted; employees whose employment is governed by a collective bargaining agreement are eligible for benefits under that agreement.
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